art in all its forms

art in all its forms

5/30/11

We are yellow now


And in what colours he had painted it! Blue and green and even black. In 1938, the week the Pope died and the Sentinel came out with a black border, he had come across a large tin of yellow paint and painted everything yellow, even the typewriter. That had been acquired when, at the age of thirty-three, he had decided to become rich by writing for American and English magazines; a brief, happy, hopeful period. The typewriter had remained idle and yellow, and its colour had long since ceased to startle.

--V.S. Naipaul, A House for Mr Biswas.

Far Nearer by Jaime xx

LISTEN to 'Far Nearer' by xx's Jaime Smith.

5/25/11

Holly Bynoe's tumblr



CHECK IT OUT here.

From Vahni Capildeo's postcards


I would like to walk in a garden with you and hear the names of plants that, as you call them, are all sensitive.


* * *


(From Conversations for a Lifetime in Twenty Minutes and Under).

* * *


READ more from a series of postcards at Infinite Editions here.

5/21/11

My most anticipated films of 2011!



1. Pedro Almodovar's The Skin I Live In

It's a bad title (reads better in Spanish: La Piel que Habito) but Almodovar has been on a winning streak for the last decade starting with Habla Con Ella. A string of films: Bad Education, Volver and Broken Embraces have cemented his technical proficiency. Of these films, Bad Education remains my personal favorite with its particularly dark humour, kinkiness and treatment of a deeply taboo subject. The film resembles something of a personal fetish and a prayer; the tone is one of a hidden secret which the director is seeking to set free amidst a puzzle of plot devices. Unforgettable. Volver was a perfect film; perhaps a little too perfect. Broken Embraces was a stylistic tour de force that lacked something of the edge of the best Almodovar. The subject matter of The Skin I Live In (a plastic surgeon who keeps his wife prisoner) seems like the perfect antidote.


2. Terrance Malick's The Tree of Life

I enjoyed Malick's The New World immensely and found it to be rather perfect and sublime. The Thin Red Line I am less sure about. However, this film, judging from the trailer alone and the rumours, cannot be missed.

3. Lar Von Trier's Melancholia

Another bad title! Anyhow, forget the Cannes comments about Nazism (obviously another attempt by Von Trier to build buzz for his film by surrounding it with controversy). This looks to be the perfect subject matter for an incredibly straight-forward director. The film is about the impending end of the world, set at a lush estate where a wedding is to take place. The symbolism may be heavy-handed (anyone remember Antichrist, Dogville?) but the images of montages which Von Trier has pieced together for this film are enough to pique one's interest. Kirsten Dunst is, in my view, an under-rated actress as well (Marie Antoinette was made perfect by her) and it will be interesting to see what happens of her here.


4. Lynne Ramsey's We Need To Talk About Kevin

Tilda Swinton.

5. David Yates' Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2

Am genuinely curious as to how this will end. Part 1 was quite beautiful and perfect in its own way.

One mask at a time

SEE more at Brianna McCarthy's blog here.

Today is your last chance

"People Celebrating Forests" by Wulf Gurstenmaier, first place in show.

To check out the Art Society of Trinidad and Tobago's May exhibition with pieces from Che Lovelace, Embah, Peter Sheppard and many others! CHECK the website here.

Sugar and water and heat and sugar and water and

ONGOING project as seen on Nikolai Noel's blog here.

The bride

FROM Tanya Marie Williams blog here.

5/3/11

O here is Nadia Huggins!


Nadia Huggins is a digital photographer from St. Vincent & the Grenadines who has been specializing in documentary and conceptual photography for over 8 years. She also has several years experience in television production and graphic design. Her work takes apart the everyday and everyday-ness. The juxtapositions she employs along with her attention to composition, light and presence infuses the form and content, thereby addressing ideas of veiled beauty.  She has been featured in several online and print publications internationally and is part of the Depthcore Collective. She is also the founder and
Creative Director of Arc Magazine, the first of its kind to highlight art and culture in the Caribbean.


CHECK out Nadia's blog here.

The possibility of art



Art. Recognition. Culture. These are the watchwords of ARC magazine, a new Caribbean art venture launched in Trinidad at Alice Yard, Woodbrook, on April 27.

The magazine, which covers Caribbean art, launched its inaugural issue in January and unveiled its second issue in April as part of the Bocas Literature Festival.

It is our ambition to inspire and give voice to a new generation of independent and emerging artists who remain fearless and fearful while battling the fractions and whole of their varied cultures,” co-editor Holly Bynoe, herself a visual artist, said at the launch. “Thereby becoming part of an entity that has a collective and necessary impact on our shared social spaces and geography.” Bynoe placed ARC in the context of a Caribbean art scene often dogged with difficulties in crossing boundaries.

ARC is a call to action,” Bynoe said. “For far too long we have been disconnected. Though waves separate us, we must find a way to unify and bring together our disparate parts to realize what we are within this expanding maze.”

We found it necessary to make the common man and the aficionado aware of the possibility of art, its evolution, trends and ‘personalities’. We also felt the need to provide a forum that celebrates creativity, its determination, dialogue and pleasure,” Bynoe said.


In a press release to mark the launch, Bynoe and co-editor Nadia Huggins, further set out the objectives of ARC.

The Caribbean has been excluded from contemporary publishing – our archipelago’s geographical constraints, differing political systems, technological and economic limitations make the space especially difficult to navigate,” they noted. “Yet we feel it important to present work within a container that honours the merit and labour of art production. As a collaborative unit of makers we understand what it means to foresee this as an archive and as a cultural capsule preserved for our future.”

“We are attempting to understand our dispersal and the potential of ARC’s collective ideologies and content. Larger ideas of supporting emerging artists throughout the duration of their careers will be our first step in defining the collaborative space we occupy. ARC Magazine is a quarterly, independent visual arts magazine made possible by the subscription and support of its readers. ARC is a projected motion that ascends, moves outward and beyond into a space of curiosity.”

Issue 2 features work by Trinidadian artist Brianna McCarthy (http://briannamccarthy.blogspot.com) who also displayed her work at the exhibition and spoken-word launch event at Alice Yard last week. Of McCarthy, whose first collage adornes the cover of ARC 2, the editors noted, “Featured artist Brianna McCarthy’s collage and paper constructions strive to redefine our views of the Afro-Caribbean woman; working within repetition and beauty she constructs patterns that challenge the notions of its definition.”

The magazine has a novel approach to its subject matter and to critique, in terms of how criticism and text (including poetry) meet and interact with work in playful, yet also rigorous ways. Issue 2, the editors note, brings together the work of Andrea Chung, a Jamaican visual artist, who takes an ironic look at tourism and its neo constructs in the Caribbean. Writer and critic Annie Paul has partnered with Chung to bring a haunting vision to life. Additionally, A Hand Full of Dirt, the first feature by Barbadian filmmaker Russell Watson, is broken down to its core, and writer/filmmaker Tracy Assing examines funding and organizational structures in place to bring Caribbean filmmaking into 2011. Dalton Narine also discusses how mas man Peter Minshall’s practice presents a poetic revelation of an artist who for decades lost himself in his creations. Detailing Minshall in his genius, Narine provokes, tempts and enchants us with the power of mas. Andre Bagoo also looks at a slide-show of the work of Stanley Greaves in a long essay on how politics is reflected in art.

April’s launch at Alice Yard was well-attended, with Bynoe and Huggins utilizing and successfully engaging with all of the spaces available at the contemporary arts space. The program included poetry from the poet Vahni Capildeo (author of Undraining Sea, Eggbox Publishing), and Danielle Boodoo-Fortuné (a Cropper Foundation resident). Artwork from McCarthy, Rodell Warner, Gerard Hanson, Andrea Chung Manuel Mathieu, Andre Bagoo and Vahni Capildeo, Tracy Assing and Clayton Rhule were a part of the show.

There is no complete observation or understanding until the whole is present, and if the fracture continues and we remain unable to repair, bond or move as one unit, what will unite our experience?" Bynoe asked at the April event.  "There is a deep level failure embedded in the nature of division and for ARC to function we need to embrace and welcome its vision, generosity and unselfishness. We have grown in very different ways but at the center of our encounters and interactions there was always present: concerns about art, its culture and how it can be used as a critical space for questioning positions and ideologies regarding societal roles.”

***

FROM Newsday

ARC magazine can be purchased at Paper-Based, Hotel Normandie. Call 625-3917. Copies are also available from Alice Yard (http://aliceyard.blogspot.com)